Europeans Count the Insane Cost of their Wind Power Fantasy

It’s quite telling that COP21 took place in Paris. Western leaders, environmental groups, and international institutions are convinced that Europe is the model for the rest of the world to install more renewable energy and efficiency.

Entered into force in 2005, Europe has been a mainstay of the failed Kyoto Protocol, the first agreement for country-by-country reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. And the European Union Energy Roadmap 2050 wants the EU to cut its emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, setting milestones for reductions of the order of 40% by 2030 and 60% by 2040.

But, the truth is much different. Europe is a “green energy” basket case with surging prices, fleeing industry, falling economic and population growth, growing dependence on Russian energy, and rising “fuel poverty,” where even the Middle Class often can’t afford the most basic energy services. “Soaring energy costs make Europeans poor.”

To illustrate, Denmark and Germany are the proud wind capitals of Europe, but they also have the highest home electricity prices on Earth, 42 and 40 cents per kWh, respectively, against just 12.5 cents in the U.S. Germany has embarked on a $1.4 trillion energy transition (“Energiewende”) that has resulted in recent Der Spiegel headlines like: “Germany’s Energy Poverty: How Electricity Became a Luxury Good.”

Naturally intermittent and more expensive, wind and solar power have surged under Germany’s very expensive energy plan, and the goal remains to get as much as 60% of power from renewables in 2035, versus 28% today. Undeniably non-sensically, Germany has been paying over $26 billion per year for electricity that has a wholesale market value of just $5 billion (see here).

Yet, the influential Bloomberg, one of the biggest renewable energy promoters and investors in the world, still declared in August: “On Clean Energy, the U.S. Should Be More German.” As a side note, I’ve noticed that Manhattanites can afford ridiculously high costs for pretty much….everything.

Source: JTC

Endlessly ignored by those promoting renewables and/or those directly invested in the business itself, higher cost electricity (and energy) is horrible for our health. That’s because, since electricity is so indispensable, meaning that it “cannot not be used,” higher cost power drastically erodes our disposable income, which is the very basis of our health – while also disproportionately hurting the poor most. As a percentage of income, poor families pay 5-9 times more for electricity than rich families do.

Predictably silently, higher cost electricity in Europe is killing tens of thousands of people a year, ”Excess Winter Deaths,” where older residents on fixed budgets in particular are forced to turn their heat down to avoid overly expensive utility bills. For example, there were 44,000 Excess Winter Deaths in England and Wales in 2014-2015 (see here). Critically, although we keep hearing about the dangers of a warmer world, “cold kills 20 times more people than heat.”

In contrast, The American Chemistry Council finds that low cost shale natural gas has given the U.S. a “profound and sustained competitive advantage” in chemicals, plastics, and related industries. And The International Energy Agency concludes that higher cost energy will hamper Europe for “at least 20 years.”

Any of us that have taken even just one basic Economics class must stop those in the sacred-cow business of promoting renewable energy from constantly ignoring these higher costs that devastate. After 12 years in the energy/environment arena, I learned real quick that altruism is typically an illusion. “Climate change” is now a $1.5 trillion industry (see here).

The direct loss of industry because of higher cost electricity is particularly destructive. Manufacturing jobs are very high-paying and the manufacturing business greatly advances nations with a massive “multiplier effect,” where 1 new manufacturing job can create as many as 6 or 7 across the overall economy.

While the manufacturing sector in the EU now employs about 30 million persons directly, down from 37 million 10 years ago, the real devastation is far worse because manufacturing is a building block of a strong economy.

Moreover, energy dreams that are based on more renewable energy at all costs, exacerbated by a refusal to more realistically produce as much domestic coal, oil, and natural gas as possible, have upped Europe’s dependence on Vladimir Putin’s more reliable hydrocarbons. Russian gas, for instance, now supplies 65% of Europe’s natural gas imports, compared to 45% in 2010. More reliable coal and gas still supply 5 times more electricity than wind and solar do in the EU, even after tens of billions in subsidies for renewables.

And never forget that, given the importance of energy, higher cost energy trickles down to increase the costs of EVERYTHING that we do and/or enjoy. For example, the costs of water, an even more indispensable necessity than electricity, are dangerously much higher in Europe because power is way too expensive (see here):

“Because the energy required for treatment and delivery of water accounts for as much as 80% of its cost, an insufficient supply of affordable energy will have a negative impact on the price and availability of water,” Sandia National Laboratories

Source: Eurostat; EIA

And beyond forcing the acceptance of much higher costs, energy policies in Europe aren’t just undesirable but they’re also impractical due to basically non-existent population growth on the continent, explaining why I use the term “non-growth Europe.” In fact, one main reason why Europe has so suspiciously and gladly accepted refugees and/or economic migrants is because the continent needs more able-bodied workers (a must read on that here). In short, Europe’s importance is declining.

Indeed, contrary to what the mainstream media keeps depicting, the United Nations reports that 72% of those arriving in Europe are men (see here), and about 54% of the asylum seekers are men aged 18-34 (see here).

Reblogged this on The Law is my Oyster and commented:
Scary reading. Ireland is in the eye of this particular storm. Increasing electricity prices as windfarms need increasing subsidies to turn a profit means increasing fuel poverty.

For the umpteenth time, the utter and predictable failure of the “renewables” alleged to cure it, is no proof that Global Warming is anything but real. The planet receives more radiation energy than it radiates back out and the low grade energy left is called “heat”. Nuclear power has lower waste and emissions than solar and wind and their unavoidable gas turbine backup.
China and Russia know this, and so does India, and as of now they are working upon nuclear technologies which were pioneered in the USA until Big Carbon in the USA contrived to strangle them. I suspect that there are coal “moles” in all of the “environmentalist” organizations that are so strenuously publishing scare stories about nuclear. TMI and Fukushima killed NOBODY. Fear of radiation and evacuation of old people from their homes is responsible for at least some of the 1600 who died after hastily leaving the area.